Preparing for B1 speaking test

Spring is coming and that time is of the year is just round the corner: not the flowers and the sunny, brighter days, the short sleeves and the beers on a terrace. No, not that, I’m afraid. It’s the panicky times of Certification exams. Oh dear!

It’s the time when students suddenly realize that the exam is in a month or so and they begin to stumble over their grammar notes, vocab lists and all that hedgepodge of useful language for tests.

My students, who are more than used to receiving all sort of summaries from me, have recently asked me to put up some kind of portfolio to help them prepare their speaking exam and I have agreed to do so. So… here you are.

I have divided it into the 4 parts of the speaking test, namely: short individual interview., pair discussion, picture description and dialogue. In all the parts there are both sample questions and useful language or phrases. Students would do well to sit together and practise before the exam, so in the dossier they have enough information to do well on the test.

Please note that this dossier has been lovingly put together for my B1 students from the Instituto de Lenguas at the Catholic University of Valencia, who are now preparing to take their certification tests at the end of April. The questions offered as examples to the 12 units are based on the materials we are using in class (Complete PET -Cambridge University Press).

You can have a pdf copy of the dossier here.

I hope you find the dossier useful and, as always, please feel free to comment. Constructive feedback is always welcome!